Sowell: Defunding strategy “futile and foredoomed”

posted at 12:41 pm on September 24, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

It’s no secret that Republicans and conservatives have split on the strategy to stop ObamaCare, and that the fight has gotten personal on the Right. Instead of arguing tactics and strategy, it’s been replaced in many cases by name-calling and fingerpointing. One of the best and most respected (until now, anyway) conservative minds in the country, Thomas Sowell, weighs in today on the split, and argues that the defunding strategy — while having its heart in the right place — has played into Barack Obama’s hands:

What could possibly rescue Barack Obama from all these political problems and create a distraction that takes all his scandals off the front page? Only one thing: the Republicans.

By making a futile and foredoomed attempt to defund ObamaCare, Congressional Republicans have created the distraction that Obama so much needs. Already media attention has shifted to the possibility of a government shutdown.

Politically, it doesn’t matter that the Republicans are not really trying to shut down the government. What matters is that this distraction solves Barack Obama’s political problems that he could not possibly have solved by himself.

If defunding were possible, Sowell writes, it would be worth the fight. However, dramatic gestures with no possibility of success aren’t helpful in warfare or in politics:

But, for the same reason that it makes no sense to impeach either President Obama or Chief Justice Roberts, it makes no sense to attempt to defund ObamaCare. That reason is that it cannot be done. The world is full of things that ought to be done but cannot in fact be done.

The time, effort and credibility that Republicans are investing in trying to defund ObamaCare is a high risk, low yield investment.

Even if, by some miracle, the Republicans managed to get the Senate to go along with defunding ObamaCare, President Obama can simply veto the bill.

There is a United States of America today only because George Washington understood that his army was not able to fight the British troops everywhere, but had to choose carefully when and where to fight. Futile symbolic confrontations were a luxury that could not be afforded then and cannot be afforded now.

The trouble with this strategy is that it has no end game, especially now that the fight hinges on blocking a floor vote on the House resolution with the defunding language. That puts the onus for a shutdown squarely on the Senate rather than Obama. The effort has failed to produce the desired effect of pressuring Democrats to back down in large part because the story shifted away from ObamaCare itself and onto a government shutdown, as Sowell points out. And even if defunding had a prayer of passing, it wouldn’t actually stop ObamaCare, since the exchanges and the subsidies get their funding from statutory rather than budgetary sources.

This really isn’t about grassroots versus the establishment. It’s about what could work — a delay for the individual mandate that would postpone the exchanges and subsidies — versus what has no possibility of working. In order to put political pressure on Democrats to delay the implementation, we need to shift the discussion to stories like the 500,000 children that will likely be left without coverage thanks to ObamaCare, which USA Today just noticed:

A “family glitch” in the 2010 health care law threatens to cost some families thousands of dollars in health insurance costs and leave up to 500,000 children without coverage, insurance and health care analysts say.

That’s unless Congress fixes the problem, which seems unlikely given the House’s latest move Friday to strip funding from the Affordable Care Act.

Congress defined “affordable” as 9.5% or less of an employee’s household income, mostly to make sure people did not leave their workplace plans for subsidized coverage through the exchanges. But the “error” was that it only applies to the employee — and not his or her family. So, if an employer offers a woman affordable insurance, but doesn’t provide it for her family, they cannot get subsidized help through the state health exchanges.

That can make a huge difference; the Kaiser Family Foundation said an average plan for an individual is about $5,600, but it goes up to $15,700 for families. Most employers help out with those costs, but not all.

“We saw this two-and-a-half years ago and thought, ‘Has anyone else noticed this?’” said Kosali Simon, a professor of public affairs at Indiana University who specializes in health economics. “Everyone said, ‘No, no. You must be wrong.’ But we weren’t, and that’s going to leave a lot of people out.”

Politics is the art of the possible, not the art of the empty gesture. Hopefully we’ll get back to that soon.

Blowback

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Dr. Sowell is not considering the political reasons to fight on this count. We need to see who will betray us, and we are seeing the usual suspects of the surrender caucus.

Quartermaster on September 24, 2013 at 12:44 PM

This is in a nutshell why this theater will be the right’s waterloo. While “your need to see” is being satisfied. Obama and Clinton are going around the country telling ppl to sign up. Nobody’s talking about Syria anymore, and everyone thinks GOP is take the country hostage because of their “Need to see”

HOW MANY F’N TIMES DO YOU GUYS NEED TO BE STABBED IN THE BACK BEFORE YOU SEEEEEEE WHO WILL BETRAY YOU??? please tell us!

I guess the segment of the poll who keep saying crap like that is a bunch of white men with no college degree commenting on HA….It’s never too late to go back to school guys!

The House Leadership created this issue when they passed the Defund with the message. “FYI, will cave at the first sign of opposition., real or perceived. Love you lots, XOXOXO.” They put the Senate in a position of having to resolve the issue in the Senate.

Tell us what do think should happen? See if you can articulate an answer without the name calling. This ought to be good.

DanMan on September 24, 2013 at 1:48 PM

You’re an idiot…darn, I can’t do it, your post was just too idiotic…

He said exactly what Margaret Thatcher, Churchill, Reagan, all great leaders say…pick the battle you can win, winnable battles that mean something.

Losing a battle does not help your cause, especially a social one.

Paul’s battle, the one to force all government employees to take ObamaCare, now that is winnable and unpalatable to all of congress and their employees. That’s the battle to wage, one where the populace easily understands and will support you.

Don’t throw away valuable assets in a losing battle…sometimes you have to retreat from a battle to win the war.

Get it? No, because you are a conservative hammer, you think every idea counter to you is a nail…

Sorry but the conservative base is a little tired of losing the game because Lucy is holding the football for the kickoff. We need champions of conservative principles not RINOs concerned about staying in power by becoming Quislings.

After reading up about Doolittle, I don’t see the situations as at all comparable. We’ve had plenty of counter-attacks, what we need are successes…which Doolittle’s mission was most certainly not.

[bobs1196 on September 24, 2013 at 1:52 PM]

No comparison is exactly the same. Doolittle’s mission was symbolic and although in the entire scheme of the war both insignificant and “failed and foredoomed”, since it didn’t stop the war, donchaknow.

But as a gamble on a symbolic gesture it did was greatly successful in that it did two things. One, it bucked up the moral and fighting spirit of folks here at home. Second, the bombs were dropped on Tokyo and the Japs got a first taste at home of the war they started. In other words, the gamble — the odds were long that it would be successful — paid off.

Where the comparison fails is that it was a secret and a surprise. Cruz’s also was as much as it could be for reasons now obvious. Personally, I think it was a good idea to make the effort in theory, but in practice, he and I should have anticipated our side would spend more time on the anti-aircraft batteries as the opposition has. I am surprised, though, how many Jane Fondas there are in our party.

Aren’t there lots of alternative parties/blogs out there already? What will a new party/blog do that hasn’t been done before and how could we trust that it wouldn’t make the same mistakes as before?

thebrokenrattle on September 24, 2013 at 2:10 PM

Breitbart.com is an excellent site but their comment system sucks, IMO. I have to sign in every time I comment and the comments aren’t inline. If their comment system was more like HotAir I would comment there more often. On the other hand there are already a lot of people there who are awake to what is going on, a lot of good comments, so if I comment over there I will be redundant. If anything I think the people that comment at breitbart.com should make sure they also comment at sites where they aren’t the majority in order to spread the word.

bw222: “Using this logic, the Giants, Jaguars, Vi-Queens, Raiders and Redskins shouldn’t play any more this season because they will probably lose”

No, it’s akin to the logic that if you have minus rushing yards for the game in the 4th quarter and you need to make 4th-and-4 you should probably pass rather than sending the fullback off-tackle. Or that if you want to invade France in June of 1944 it’s a lot better to attack Normandy than the Pas de Calias.

With elections a short way away the Democrats are extremely vulnerable on the waiver issue, especially wrt to Congress, accelerating job cutbacks, and the broken promises of insurance bill reduction and personal choice retention.

The best strategy is demagogue those issues with a view to clobbering them in 2014 and 2016 and hopefully get solid Congressional majorities. The real issue regarding wussy RINOism is the extreme Republican reluctance to demagogue Democrats the way they demagogue us.

We only control one branch Dems control the other two..Who is a RINO or a Conservative???..With all this fighting among ourselves I get confused..:)

Dire Straits on September 24, 2013 at 2:38 PM

It does get rather confusing, doesn’t it?

Generally speaking, the moment that any non-Democrat doesn’t toe the (Tea) party line completely, they are excommunicated and saddled with the Scarlet R… and will forever forthwith be known as a scum-sucking RINO (the horror!!)

But then…. sometimes RINOs kiss the rings of the Conservative Elite and take some stands that we actually want them to…

But… I think we are still supposed to loathe, despise and hate them… I guess.

Once a RINO always a RINO (?)

So, it’s the people themselves that we actually dislike, and not necesarily all of their positions… is that how it works?

It’s about what could work — a delay for the individual mandate that would postpone the exchanges and subsidies

That is not a tactic that would work, unless your goal is to delay the pain of Obamacare until AFTER the midterms. A better tactic is to fully implement this POS with no delays and no exemptions. I want to see the Democrats campaigning on this turd next year. “See the power of the fully armed and operational Obamacare!” Of course, such a strategy assumes that Boehner won’t simply cry some small orange tears and cave. Not a good assumption there.

Obama wants and needs this fight to reunite his splintering party and enable his media allies to shift the focus away from what a miserable failure he is at everything he tries (there’s a reason they don’t allow photographers to snap him actually playing golf, it makes his bike-riding look manly).

PLUS most of the funding of ObamaCare is by statute and tax law. It is like an entitlement, it doesn’t depend on the budget for funding benefits. All we can cut is administrative budgets for ObamaCare.

Of course, if certain Senators had bothered to say, think things through, do a little research, and consult their colleagues instead of grandstanding, they might have figured that much out.

On the bright side, Cruz now has amassed a database of 1.5 million people dumb enough to think an internet petition means something, so there’s that.

This is in a nutshell why this theater will be the right’s waterloo. While “your need to see” is being satisfied. Obama and Clinton are going around the country telling ppl to sign up. Nobody’s talking about Syria anymore, and everyone thinks GOP is take the country hostage because of their “Need to see”

HOW MANY F’N TIMES DO YOU GUYS NEED TO BE STABBED IN THE BACK BEFORE YOU SEEEEEEE WHO WILL BETRAY YOU??? please tell us!

I guess the segment of the poll who keep saying crap like that is a bunch of white men with no college degree commenting on HA….It’s never too late to go back to school guys!

Can.I.be.in.the.middle on September 24, 2013 at 2:18 PM

It is not going to be a Waterloo because the government will not shutdown… What will be a Waterloo for democrats is when their precious Obamacare gets finally implemented starting January 1 2014…

America is too powerful to be destroyed by a single man… FDR, LBJ, Woodrow Wilson, and James Buchanan had much more destructive policies than Obama has ever had but yet we not only survived them but we prospered beyond anyone imagination…
mnjg on September 24, 2013 at 1:13 PM

Your post contains its own refutation. America, first of all, ISN”T “too powerful to be destroyed”. That’s just hubris. America, like any other man-made political entity, has a shelf life and it’s just about reached its expiration date.
Secondly, it isn’t being destroyed by one man but by an accumulation of decisions and policies of many men, including those you’ve already mentioned. Obama isn’t some kind of historical anomaly but rather the logical successor of all our past cultural, political, and moral mistakes. He’s not the cause; he’s a result.

I do remember when McCain told us that Obama would make a good president, and here we are today, watching McCain and “friends” still refusing to stand against anything that the dems and Onama have shoved down our throats. Obama knows that he can push through anything as long as he keeps the Republicans in their cozy little holes in the ground. Go ahead Mr. President continue to play golf and shred the country because those rascally Republicans are still sitting on their thumbs waiting to conquer the world.

I don’t understand the fascination with Cruz. If you don’t want to work with colleagues, why run for a 100-seat body that is usually close to evenly divided and requires building coalitions to do anything other than by party line?

Maybe he resembles the nice young televangelist that Grandma sent your inheritance to?

Meanwhile, the geniuses who brought us O’Donnell, Buck, and Angle are busy bailing Obama out by trying to shut down the government – the ONLY thing that can get his bumbling failures off the headlines and reunite his party, which has been falling apart over Syria and unions wanting waivers, etc.

With Congress very likely being without the votes to override a Presidential veto of any funding bill that defunds Obamacare, if such a bill passes the Senate, Sowell is likely right.

Recall how this EpicClusterFarkNado passed.

In the House, the Speaker had to browbeat dozens of her own caucus to support the bill – even lying to some in order to gather their votes because she knew that every single GOP House member would oppose the bill. And oppose they did, even though the Democrats held a significant majority in the House – a majority that held up even though 34 Democrats voted against the EpicClusterFarkNado.

In the Senate, the Majority Leader had to resort to invoking reconciliation in order to bypass a cloture vote that even his near super-majority (59 Democrats) could not win because every single of the 41 GOP Senators would vote against cloture to prevent this EpicClusterFarkNado from getting a final vote on the Senate floor.

In the Spring of 2010 – the GOP had no chance of defeating this EpicClusterFarkNado simply because of the numbers that resulted from the 2008 election. They knew that this EpicClusterFarkNado would be signed into law – despite it’s known faults and concerns over the amount of damage it would do to the already heavily damaged national economy. Once reconciliation was invoked, the passage of the bill was a ‘fait accompli’.

Yet they still fought and stayed consistent to their principles and voted against a bill that put 1/6th of the national economy under federal government control and would damage tens of millions of Americans.

Here we are 3 years later, on the cusp of the official effective date of such an EpicClusterFarkNado that the Democrats had to give it 3 years to take effect in order to not have this disaster weaken the President’s re-election efforts, and after the SCOTUS determined the individual mandate was a ‘tax’, we have the RINO’s of the GOP not being willing to stand on any conservative or core American principles and just surrender because the odds of winning are so remote.

If they aren’t willing to stand on principles, then they don’t have any principles.

ACA is an EpicClusterFarkNado that will severely damage the nation in multiple ways. It is something that is not designed to fix any problems, but invoke ‘fundamental change’ and move this country from a government accountable and responsible to the people to one where the people are accountable and responsible to the government.

It needs to be fought at each and every chance, even if it is hard to do, and the odds of success are long. The GOP has to establish itself as the anti-EpicClusterFarkNado party – so the voters know who to go to when they want to repeal this disaster.

But the GOP establishment / RINO’s aren’t interested in that. They want to go along to get along.

That’s why the GOP is hurting….and why the Tea Party is resonating.

The GOP shouldn’t be like France in June 1940 – it should be like the Churchill-led Britain of June 1940.

The 1995-96 Federal Government shutdowns did little, in reality, to damage the GOP election efforts in November 1996.

In the House, the GOP lost just 3 seats, and held a 227 to 206 majority.

In the Senate, the GOP gained 2 seats, and held a 55 to 45 majority.

The reason that the GOP lost the WH was because of the candidate selected and the dismal campaign that Bob Dole ran against Bill Clinton. Clinton also was only saved by his decision to embrace tri-angulation and move to the center to co-opt for himself a number of the key initiatives of the GOP led House, like Welfare reform, and controlling government spending in an effort to achieve a ‘balanced budget’ (balanced only by using the surpluses generated by Social Security in the general fund).

Government was not growing in an unprecedented manner. Government funding/spending was not unreasonable. The President was forced, decided to move to the center to achieve a compromise.

Today, we have a President who is willing to talk, negotiate, and compromise with anyone except those who oppose his progressive fascist agenda. His definition of compromise is for the other side to surrender. He has a biased, corrupt, and unethical media to largely operate as his propaganda arm – and is bribing the low information voters with money seized from taxpayers and printed out of the Fed.

Why on earth would anyone give in to this? Why wouldn’t we fight as if our lives depended on it – because if we wish to preserve what made America unique, we have to fight, articulate our message, and stand up to the thin-skinned narcissistic ideologue who occupies the WH.

If that shuts down the government – do it again. As we learned in 1996, there wasn’t any real price to be paid to do the right thing.

Futile symbolic confrontations were a luxury that could not be afforded then and cannot be afforded now. — Sowell

Politics is the art of the possible, not the art of the empty gesture.– Ed.

A few of our historic futile symbolic confrontations and empty gestures:

“Give me liberty, or give me death!” — Patrick Henry

“I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” — Nathan Hale

“I have not yet begun to fight.” — John Paul Jones

“Gentlemen, we must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Benjamin Franklin to the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

“Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” — Colonel William Prescott

“Nuts!” — Gen. Anthony Clement McAuliffe

– (saving the references for the future;
stick an http://www. in front of the links) –

history.org/almanack/life/politics/giveme.cfm

To avoid interference from Lieutenant-Governor Dunmore and his Royal Marines, the Second Virginia Convention met March 20, 1775 inland at Richmond–in what is now called St. John’s Church–instead of the Capitol in Williamsburg. Delegate Patrick Henry presented resolutions to raise a militia, and to put Virginia in a posture of defense. Henry’s opponents urged caution and patience until the crown replied to Congress’ latest petition for reconciliation.

On the 23rd, Henry presented a proposal to organize a volunteer company of cavalry or infantry in every Virginia county. By custom, Henry addressed himself to the Convention’s president, Peyton Randolph of Williamsburg. Henry’s words were not transcribed, but no one who heard them forgot their eloquence, or Henry’s closing words: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Hale

Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 – September 22, 1776) was a soldier for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and hanged. He is probably best remembered for his purported last words before being hanged: “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”[1] Hale has long been considered an American hero and, in 1985, he was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut.[2]

eyewitnesstohistory.com/johnpauljones.htm

At this moment I received orders from Commodore Jones to commmence the action with a broadside, which indeed appeared to be simultaneous on board both ships. Our position being to windward of the Serapis, we passed ahead of her, and the Serapis coming up on our larboard quarter, the action commenced abreast of each other. The Serapis soon passed ahead of the Bonhomme Richard, and when he thought he had gained a distance sufficient to go down athwart the fore foot to rake us, found he had not enough distance . . . and the Bonhomme Richard, having headway, ran her bows into the stern of the Serapis. We had remained in this situation but a few minutes when we were again hailed by the Serapis:

As we were unable to bring a single gun to bear upon the Serapis, our topsails were backed, while those of the Serapis being filled, the ships separated. The Serapis bore short round upon her heel, and her jib boom ran into the mizen rigging of the Bonhomme Richard. In this situation the ships were made fast together with a hawser, the bowsprit of the Serapis to the mizenmast of the Bonhomme Richard, and the action recommenced from the starboard sides of the two ships …. A novelty in naval combats was now presented to many witnesses, but to few admirers. . . .

From the commencement to the termination of the action, there was not a man on board the Bonhomme Richard ignorant of the superiority of the Serapis, both in weight of metal, and in the qualities of the crews. The crew of that ship was picked seamen, and the ship itself had been only a few months off the stocks; whereas the crew of the Bonhomme Richard consisted of part American, English, and French, and a part of Maltese, Portuguese, and Malays, these latter contributing, by their want of naval skill and knowledge of the English language, to depress rather than elevate the first hope of success in a combat under such circumstances.

Neither the consideration of the relative force of the ships, the fact of the blowing up of the gundeck above them by the bursting of two of the eighteen pounders, nor the alarm that the ship was sinking, could depress the ardor or change the determination of the brave Captain Jones, his officers and men. Neither the repeated broadsides of the Alliance, given with a view of sinking or disabling the Bonhomme Richard, the frequent necessity of suspending the combat to extinguish the flames, which several times were within a few inches of the magazine, nor the liberation by the master-at-arms of nearly five hundred prisoners, could change or weaken the purpose of the American commander. At the moment of the liberation of the prisoners, one of them, a commander of a twenty-gun ship taken a few days before, passed through the ports on board the Serapis, and informed Captain Pearson that if he would hold out only a little while longer, the ship alongside would either strike or sink, and that all the prisoners had been released to save their lives. The combat was accordingly continued with renewed ardor by the Serapis.

The fire from the tops of the Bonhomme Richard was conducted with so much skill and effect as to destroy ultimately every man who appeared upon the quarter-deck of the Serapis, and induced her commander to order the survivors to go below. Nor even under shelter of the decks were they more secure. The powder-monkeys of the Serapis, finding no officer to receive the eighteen-pound cartridges brought from the magazines, threw them on the main deck, and went for more. These cartridges being scattered along the deck, and numbers of them broken, it so happened that some of the hand grenades thrown from the main-yard of the Bonhomme Richard, which was directly over the main hatch of the Serapis, fell upon this powder, and produced a most awful explosion. The effect was tremendous. More than twenty of the enemy were blown to pieces, and many stood with only the collars of their shirts upon their bodies. In less than an hour afterward the flag of England, which had been nailed to the mast of the Serapis, was struck by Captain Pearson’s own hands, as none of his people would venture aloft on this duty; and this, too, when more than 1,500 persons were witnessing the conflict, and the humiliating termination of it, from Scarborough and Flamborough Head.”

ushistory.org/franklin/quotable/quote71

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

nps.gov/bost/historyculture/bhm.htm

This legendary order has come to symbolize the conviction and determination of the ill-equipped American colonists facing powerful British forces during the famous battle fought on this site on June 17, 1775. The battle is popularly known as “The Battle of Bunker Hill” although most of the fighting actually took place on Breed’s Hill, the site of the existing monument and exhibit lodge. Today, a 221-foot granite obelisk marks the site of the first major battle of the American Revolution.

The Battle of Bunker Hill pitted a newly-formed and inexperienced colonial army against the more highly trained and better-equipped British. Despite the colonial army’s shortcomings, it was led by such capable men as Colonel William Prescott, Colonel John Stark and General Israel Putnam, who had experience fighting alongside the British in the French and Indian War. Although the British Army ultimately prevailed in the battle, the colonists greatly surprised the British by repelling two major assaults and inflicting great casualties. Out of the 2,200 British ground forces and artillery engaged at the battle, almost half (1,034) were counted afterwards as casualties (both killed and wounded). The colonists lost between 400 and 600 combined casualties, including popular patriot leader and newly-elected Major-General Dr. Joseph Warren, who was killed during the third and final assault.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bunker_Hill

The battle is seen as an example of a Pyrrhic victory [for the British], because the immediate gain (the capture of Bunker Hill) was modest and did not significantly change the state of the siege, while the cost (the loss of nearly a third of the deployed forces) was high. Meanwhile, colonial forces were able to retreat and regroup in good order having suffered fewer casualties. Furthermore, the battle demonstrated that relatively inexperienced colonial forces were willing and able to stand up to regular army troops in a pitched battle.

military.com/Content/MoreContent?file=ML_mcauliffe_bkp

Gen. Anthony Clement McAuliffe is best remembered for uttering a single word — no mean feat, considering that even the shortest Bible verse has two. Commanding the U.S. Army’s beleaguered and surrounded 101st Airborne Division during World War II’s Battle of the Bulge, McAuliffe received a German surrender ultimatum. “Nuts!” he replied, and became a lasting symbol of American courage and determination under fire.

Again, the idea that a new party has to start by winning the White House is silly. What a new party has to do is put enough of its members into Congress that it can force the Republicans to virtue as the price of coalition. We know from the 2010 elections that that’s do-able, especially if the new party starts out by recruiting sitting GOP House members.

In life and as in the game of football, you can never win the victory if you choose to punt every time you touch the ball.

“You lose 100% of the battles you don’t fight.” — Ted Cruz

(I can’t find the source where I saw it, but if he didn’t actually say it, I bet he would.)

We need a new party that’s geographically centered around the South – where conservatism still rules. A party of REAL MEN – not impotent BETA MALES … men who know how to fight – from states who will stand up and say .. “Aw Hell Naw!”

Have you been living in a cave, Dire? The Republican party is openly and actively hostile to principles and beliefs long held to be “conservative.” I don’t know what more you need for evidence to that effect.

Your post contains its own refutation. America, first of all, ISN”T “too powerful to be destroyed”. That’s just hubris. America, like any other man-made political entity, has a shelf life and it’s just about reached its expiration date.
Secondly, it isn’t being destroyed by one man but by an accumulation of decisions and policies of many men, including those you’ve already mentioned. Obama isn’t some kind of historical anomaly but rather the logical successor of all our past cultural, political, and moral mistakes. He’s not the cause; he’s a result.

You have to “choose your battles”, yes, but you also have to declare war. I see today’s action as a declaration of intent rather than a battle we must win. The GOP has got to stand up and say “we want to stop Obamacare” with a gesture that shows they really mean it. As long as the message continues to be “wait until after the next election…”, year after year, nothing will ever be accomplished.

This “futile” action may be the first step in a process that actually succeeds. It’s unrealistic to insist that we do nothing unless victory can be assured on the first day with no effort. It will take many rounds of back-and-forth before we win.

You have to “choose your battles”, yes, but you also have to declare war. I see today’s action as a declaration of intent rather than a battle we must win. …

This “futile” action may be the first step in a process that actually succeeds. It’s unrealistic to insist that we do nothing unless victory can be assured on the first day with no effort. It will take many rounds of back-and-forth before we win.

People like Ed, Dr. Sowell, Rove, Dr. Krauthammer…they all argue using facts and logic. Imagine that.

And they lose. Constantly.

Meanwhile the rightwing conservatives put their fingers in their ears and call them names, accuse them of “surrender,” shout “fight, fight, fight.” It’s so incredibly stupid.

And they are winning. Why is that?

Obama is enjoying every minute of this Republican food fight. All he’s ever wanted is to demonize and ultimately destroy his opposition.

And the conservative base is helping him do it.

Meredith on September 24, 2013 at 2:41 PM

Yup.

Since you and your fellow “Republicans” don’t want to fight or stand on your principles, we’re more than happy for Obama to purge you.

Tell us, Meredith, did rolling over and pandering for Obama’s and the media’s favor get John McCain elected President?

Did Mitt Romney’s attempts to run away from conservative positions on anything stop the media from lying about him and slandering him?

The problem is that you are attempting to use logic and rationality to fight an irrational, illogical Chicago thug who has no qualms about slitting your throat.

You remind me of the British generals in the Revolutionary War who had to stop every mile to ensure their troops were aligned correctly while marching. Factual, rational, logical – and battlefield-stupid.

Obama is enjoying every minute of this Republican food fight. All he’s ever wanted is to demonize and ultimately destroy his opposition.

And the conservative base is helping him do it.

Meredith on September 24, 2013 at 2:41 PM

My thoughts exactly. You are so, SO, SO right!

wbcoleman on September 24, 2013 at 7:25 PM

You people obviously don’t understand what’s at stake. Like Rove, Medved, Sowell, Hume, and so many others, you have no moral qualms with the welfare/regulatory state and cannot see what a real threat it is, otherwise, you’d keep your mouth shut, at the least. If you are the future of conservatism, then conservatism is to be just another form of leftism.

Politics is the ART OF POSITIONING! And Ted Cruz is positioning the GOP in the public mind as the only party that tried to stand up AGAINST a law that the public hates–and will hate even more as time goes on!

All Senator Cruz did is stand up and point out everything that is wrong with Obamacare. What is wrong with that? Nobody else is doing it at that level. Good for him. Who knows maybe it changed a few minds. Will it stop ACA? No, but I’m proud to see somebody take a stand for once. The enemy of good is perfect. I have no idea what perfect scenario the Republican Party is waiting for to actually wage a fight against the Left. Nothing but empty talk and the Democrats keep taking us to the woodshed time after time.

I agree with Dr. Sowell. He is STILL “one of the best and most respected . . . conservative minds in the country.”

Here’s my take — just wait. Here’s why: Obamacare regulations depend heavily on standards set by the Secy of HHS, who acts under direction from the president. The bill was intended to give Obama huge latitude in implementing it to fall within the progressive socialist vision of healthcare. THE PROBLEM IS, A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT WILL HAVE THE SAME LATITUDE TO SHAPE THE LAW.

In 2017, President Paul, Walker, or Rubio will have the legal authority to suck the wind out of the bill, and as such, will be able to use that to possibly repeal and replace the current deeply-flawed bill.

Isn’t the effort here to defund the enforcement of Obamacare? I realize you can’t defund the entire bill … that would indeed be folly. But defunding the effort to enforce the provisions of the bill would make more sense. Those funds don’t come from statutory sources.

Of course, it doesn’t matter to this regime whether there are funds to do something or not … they just do it. So the entire defunding effort becomes moot in light of the fact that these are just evil people. Ted Cruz should save his voice.

I do agree with Rand Paul, though … make the entire government – elected officials, bureaucrats, staffers, etc. – take the same medicine that they’re trying to force down our throats. They won’t, of course, and it’ll become even more painfully apparent that what we’re viewing is tyranny in action, but maybe more people will wake up and smell the stench.

What could possibly rescue Barack Obama from all these political problems and create a distraction that takes all his scandals off the front page? Only one thing: the Republicans.
Thomas Sowell

Now come on Mr. Sowell, you know full well as long as there is a squirrel (living or otherwise) to be “discovered”, B’s escapades aren’t reaching the front page.
Hey, the president just shouted, “Allhu Akbar” at a press conference? Pfft! Like anybody really cares… then he shot several people with a… no,no that’s nothing anyone gives a cra… then he opened his brief case and began pushing buttons on some kind of remote…..
Squirrel! Did you see it!?! Right beside that tree! It might be alive, call CNN!
Look, Miley just twerked with a monkey okay? I mean how can you really compare Benghazi to that!?

With all due respect to Dr. Sowell, who I love, he’s wrong. Some battles are worth fighting, even if you lose. True conservatives are tired of rolling over, hearing that no matter what we want, it’s “not the right time.”

I wonder when George Washington stood before the tattered remnants of the Continental army, many of whom were barefoot and starving and facing what seemed to be a hopeless situation, what was his speech to them? Was it: “Let’s just walk away, guys. We can’t win this. They’ll be a better time to form a country. That time is not today.”

It is time for conservative bloggers to rethink and re-target. It is time to declare victory on the liberal media and address the exposed right flank.

While bloggers have been busy busting largely irrelevant crackpots like Chris Matthews, the real damage has been done by the enemy within. The establishment GOP plants in the conservative blogosphere.

Hitting the liberal media does nothing except help their falling ratings. But ignoring thinly veiled Teaparty hit pieces from blogs that wave the conservative banner has had disastrous consequences. They are doing the real damage – not MSNBC.

These establishment bloggers post enough Teaparty red meat to keep a readership, but their main function to to gently nudge their readers away from Teaparty candidates. They are the ones who convinced the masses that only a moderate like McCain could beat Obama. They are the ones who scared conservatives into believing not picking Romney as the nominee would mean defeat.

We need to leave the Cris Matthews and Rachel Maddows alone. They didn’t give us eight years of Obama. It is time to target the people who did – the legions of Ed Morrisseys embedded in the new media.

Senator Ted Cruz filibustered ObamaCare for over 21 hours. We need to make sure his effort was not in vain.

Now we have to make sure the Senate doesn’t fund Obamacare. If we’re going to have a chance, we need to make sure these 6 Senators vote against “cloture.” A vote for cloture is a vote to fund ObamaCare.

These Republicans claim that they oppose ObamaCare. Now they have a choice: Stand with Ted Cruz and Defund ObamaCare, or stand with Harry Reid and support ObamaCare.

Call these Republican Senators now and demand they vote no on “cloture” for the CR. Remind them: if they vote for cloture, they’re voting for ObamaCare.

Even Sowell doesn’t get it. This isn’t about republicans winning house and senate seats; this is about millions of Americans losing jobs, having their hours cut, having their health insurance cancelled or paying more for less coverage. Even democrats admit that Obamacare is a train wreck. It is appalling that both political parties see nothing wrong with tying working Americans to the tracks.

But, for the same reason that it makes no sense to impeach either President Obama or Chief Justice Roberts, it makes no sense to attempt to defund ObamaCare. That reason is that it cannot be done. The world is full of things that ought to be done but cannot in fact be done.

Thomas Sowell

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Do you have an alternate strategy, Tom?
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This really isn’t about grassroots versus the establishment. It’s about what could work — a delay for the individual mandate that would postpone the exchanges and subsidies — versus what has no possibility of working.

I like Sowell and others on the right who criticized Cruz’ tactics, but they aren’t politicians and they did not see the opportunity that Cruz did. He got 21 hours of face-time with the American people – probably more time than all of Obama’s ugly state of the union speeches.

It’s not about the battle, it’s the war. If you never join the battle, what are you doing in Washington?

Cruz has put all establishment do-nothing representatives on notice that they may not return next time if they are associated with this hostile and faulty legislation.

I think he changed a lot of minds last night. That’s the war he’s fighting.

Politics is the art of the possible, not the art of the empty gesture. Hopefully we’ll get back to that soon.

LOL…it is not an empty gesture.

People seem to confuse the difference between tactics and strategy. A tactical defeat is not always a strategic defeat. Cruz and his wing of the party will lose the tactical fight, but they are going to win a major strategic victory. In one blow he has marginalized the republican leadership and has become the leader of the conservative base in this country.

Guys like Peter King, McCain, Graham, Boehner, the “New or Young Guns” or whatever the heck they call themselves now are finished. They can either quit the GOP and join the Dems or submit to the base of the party now led by Cruz, Lee and others.

There is something even more important then politics is the art of the possible which is first you must win your battles at home.